This sely carpenter bigynneth quake;
Hym thynketh verraily that he may see
Noees flood come walwynge as the see
To drenchen Alisoun, his hony deere.
He wepeth, weyleth, maketh sory cheere.

– Geoffrey Chaucer

The Canterbury Tales, The Miller’s Tale. The cruelty of Nicholas’s and Alison’s deception is underlined here. As a result of their lies, the hapless John agonizes over the picture in his head of his wife drowning in the threatened flood that Nicholas has invented. He weeps and he wails at the thought of losing his love.